How Did I Get A Kid Old Enough To Be In College???

This week marked a huge milestone in Zach's life as he finished high school.  He is 16 years old and is set to become a college student in January.

How did he move so quickly from high school to college?  The answer is the California High School Proficiency Examination (the CHSPE).  You have to be at least 16 years old or in 10th grade to take the test.

He's been enrolled in an Options program since we moved to California.  The program has been great because he got a FANTASTIC teacher who was understanding about his odd schedule.  I can't name the amount of times I called her two hours before his appointment to say, "Zach just booked a gig and can't come in for three days".  She always rolled with the changes and made sure Zach was able to get to the center and hand in his homework.

Options allows students to move forward at their own pace so Zach was able to move from grade to grade much quicker than traditional school.

The CHSPE test consists of various sections including a math portion.  We got Zach a tutor for the math section because my math knowledge expired when he was in the 4th or 5th grade.  He was only able to get one session in with the tutor because of the filming of "Camp Abercorn".  My great plan to have him study on set and take practice tests was derailed by the lack of Internet in the woods of Oregon.  (On the plus side, we had a great time exploring the woods!)

The test took place at various locations in the Los Angeles area in October.  Zach went to the Woodland Hills location and saw 3 or 4 kids he knew from acting classes around town.  After the test, he felt confident about passing but the month long waiting period for the results was ahead of him.

We found out on Monday that he passed.  Dana was on an airplane waiting to depart Arizona and texted us the results.  I was sitting in a chair in Fallas Paredes in Van Nuys returning a work phone call.  Zach was in the middle of a test at Options when he got the news.  Even though his first thought was "this doesn't matter anymore", he finished the test before leaving for the day.

What does the test mean for Zach?

*He is now finished with high school and moves on to two years of community college.  He is only 16 and we're afraid that UCLA might be too big a change for him/too big a campus for him at this point in his life.  He will go to Glendale Community College (the inspiration for the TV show "Community") for two years and then transfer to UCLA.

*He now has "Legal 18" work status.  One of the reasons many producers hire people over 18 to play teenagers is their age.  Actors under 18 years old can only work a certain amount of hours per day, have to attend three hours of school per day and need mandatory "play time" to relax on set.  This costs the production company money since they have to stop filming after a certain amount of hours and it also adds the extra expense of hiring a set teacher.  Zach is now considered an adult who can work an unlimited amount of hours and doesn't have to attend school on set anymore.

*It also means he can move forward with his education.  Options was a good program for his schedule but it wasn't challenging him academically.  He is looking forward to attending college.

It's really odd to think about the fact I have a kid in college.  He's gone from playing football in Missouri, as well as playing string bass in a college orchestra, to college in California.

He's gone from this:

Not an actual Missouri football photo.  This is a picture from the set of a Nickelodeon show he worked on last week.

As well as this:

Photo taken on land and not underwater in Bikini Bottom.

To this:

Stand Up at Sal's Comedy Hole.

And this:

I'm proud of him but I'm not old enough to have a college age kid!

The move to college will open up many possibilities for his acting career.  I can't wait to share the next phase of his life with you!

This Actor Is Now A College Student

Watching The Parents At Work On Set

Zach just wrapped a week as a "football specialist" on a new Nickelodeon show.  The phrase "football specialist" means he gets paid a higher rate than other players on the team since he has a background playing the sport.

I spent four days with him on set and met a variety of parents.  I'm always amazed at some of the behavior I see from other parents.  Let's take a look at the Top 5 Bad Behaviors I witnessed this week:

*There was one family obsessed with free food.  The mom would bring her kid in the morning for his call time.  The rest of the family would show up later in the day to "watch filming".  They would always make it before lunchtime.  The whole family (5 in all) would enjoy a free lunch and then leave for the day.  The mom would spend the rest of the day placing snacks and sodas in her purse to take home that night.

The production crew had two food trucks on site one day.  The mom was told to let the production crew eat first but she still cut in line to get free food.  The whole family was there for lunch and ordered nine items to split between themselves.

Finally, there were so many people on set on Friday that lunch was a "walkaway".  We had an hour to go find food and make it back for the next scene.  "The Food Family" was not happy about this! They decided to camp out in the green room and helped themselves to a lunch of snacks, fruit, string cheese and soda.

*There was a dinner break for a group of about 50 extras on Friday night.  The production crew needed them for another scene so they had to leave the dining area before they had a chance to eat.  I saw two parents grab a dining tray filled with pasta and carry it to their table in the lobby and proceed to dig in with two forks and no plates.

*There's always "that mom" who drops her kid off and doesn't bother to stay on set.  It's not always because the parent needs to go to work and can't stay with the child.  It's normally a case of the parent seeing a chance for a free day away from the kid!  There was one kid on set who didn't even have a parent drop him off.  This 14-year-old had to take a combination of the red line and a cab to get to set each day.  I helped him with his paperwork every morning and made sure he kept up with his football gear.

*There was one mom determined to get her son a bigger part on the show.  She planted herself in front of the production office trailer on set and made it a point to talk to every person coming in and out of the trailer.  She offered to get them coffee, laughed at their jokes and invited them over for dinner on the weekend. (I'm not kidding)  I don't know if any of this behavior helped her but they certainly knew her by the end of the week.

*I can't forget to mention the mother who made cookie plates for the director and his crew.  What a lovely way to say thanks for including my son in this project.  I'm sure they would have enjoyed the cookies and complimentary headshot and demo reel of her kid but she was caught by one of the production assistants before she completed the deed.

Here are the lessons I learned this week:

1.  I need to step up my game and stop trying the old fashioned method of having Zach study his craft and work hard.

2.  I need to just kick him out of the car and enjoy some "me time" away from the set.

3.  Food is for parents and not for the hard working crew.

4.  Most parents of child/teen actors suck.

Zach should be back on set in the next week or two.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of new parent stories to share in the coming weeks!

This Kid Has A Good Mom. The Dad Is Odd.

Standing Out In A Sea Full Of Kids

It's been a slow time for auditions for The Artist.

Part of the reason for this was his crazy schedule this past summer.  He booked the Marshall movie in May so he couldn't audition for anything that filmed in June.  We weren't sure about the start date for Camp Abercorn (or the length of time required for the filming) so he was only able to audition for projects that were scheduled for a day or two of filming.

Once we got back from Oregon, a good portion of the audition notices were non union which kept him out of the running since he is a member of SAG.

Don't get me wrong...The kid needed the break to catch up on school, see his friends and work on his stand up comedy.  It's still nice to have an audition or two on the horizon.

He landed an audition through his theatrical agent this past week.  The process of preparing for the audition kicked into high gear because there's more to the process than simply saying you'll be there on time.

1.  The first step is to find out more about the people producing the show.  What have they worked on in the past?  Do they focus on one specific type of show?  Finding out what they've worked on in the past can give you clues of what they might be looking for with their latest project.

2.  The script is important because it leads to a series of questions:

*What is the voice of the character?  The way the character acts in the script helps to determine the sound of the character.  Accent? No accent? Loud? Low Key?

*Is there a need to visit an acting coach for the script?  There are plenty of times Zach feels comfortable enough to study the script on his own.  Every now and then he wants some guidance from one of his acting coaches.  He's had three or four great coaches in the past few years and he trusts them when it comes to acting.  He felt pretty confident about this script so he decided to study it solo.

*What is the character's status in relation to the other characters in the script?  Figuring out if you're the lead, the sidekick or a fringe character is a big help in determining the way the character plays off the other members of the scene.

3.  Determining what to wear to an audition is always interesting.  You don't want to go in character because casting directors hate when actors show up dressed in character.  You want to dress to impress but not be overdressed for the meeting.  (I realize it sounds like I'm describing a job interview).

A running joke in town is boy actors love to wear their "Blue Book Me" shirt.  Blue is a neutral color that works well with a variety of pants and shoes.  It's also a color that won't scream at you when viewing a taped audition.  It needs to be a crisp blue rather than a faded blue because faded doesn't make a good impression and will appear washed out on a tape.

(Why yes, I love watching fashion shows and fashion competition shows.  Why do you ask?)

We got Zach's wardrobe together, ran the lines with him and headed off to the audition.

We entered the room to a sea of kids wearing (pretty much) the same outfit.  Lots of crisp blue shirts, jeans that looked designer (but not showy), teens around the same age as Zach and stage moms coaching their kids on the script.

Zach spotted a friend in the room and went to sit with him.  I took a seat and tried my best to avoid getting in a conversation with any of the other parents in the room.  I wasn't trying to be rude but comparing head shots and agents was not at the top of my conversation topics for the day.

The young actors were brought back to see the casting director in a big group so the waiting room was only filled with the parents.  One mom came over to me and asked what I thought of the script.  I replied, "It had the correct amount of periods and commas dictated by the words in the script".

She looked at me as if I had two heads.  She asked me if I found the script funny. I replied, "The amount of times I laughed was directly related to the amount of jokes placed in the script we received via email".

(I'm practicing for my future imaginary job as a movie reviewer)

She walked away and I continued to read an article on my phone.

Zach bounded out of the audition room about 15 minutes later.  He was in good spirits and filled me on the details once we left the building.

That's another "Hollywood thing"....No one discusses an audition until you leave the building because you don't want to give any hints (good or bad) to the others actors up for the part.

He felt really good about the audition.  He wasn't sure if he nailed the audition but he was certain he made a good impression on the casting director.

Two hour later we got the word that he has a callback for Monday afternoon!  Please think good thoughts for my favorite teen actor!

He Was Not Wearing "Book Me Blue" To The Audition